


Mischief and Stickiness

by Oryu404



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: But they're not that smart, Friendship, Gen, How does Anna even deal with their bs, Mischief, Poor Rogue, Sort of elementary school ish?, Young and dumb, they all MEAN well, young dragon slayers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:33:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26065045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oryu404/pseuds/Oryu404
Summary: Young dragon slayers aren't stellar at risk assessment. On a regularly day at school, things go from bad to worse when one dumb decision leads to another.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	Mischief and Stickiness

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mdelpin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mdelpin/gifts).



> For my dear friend Mdelpin, who loves gen fics and young dragon slayers.
> 
> If you'd like to have a chat with me about Fairy Tail, my stories, or writing/art in general, click on the link to join our discord [The Unholy Trinity](https://discord.gg/2w9QBmkPd7)!

After a morning of hard work- learning about history, and practicing reading and writing skills- it was finally time for some fun. While Anna washed the dishes from the snack break, and prepared everything they'd need for the rest of today's lessons, the dragon slayers got to enjoy one of their most favorite parts of the day: playtime. 

As different as they were, it was hard to pick a type of game they all liked _.  _ Natsu and Gajeel fought each other for fun, Sting loved to pretend he was a pirate king or a superhero, Rogue preferred hide and seek, and Wendy enjoyed playing with dolls and stuffed animals. So as usual, they wasted at least 5 minutes arguing about what to do. 

"Okay then!" Natsu shouted over Gajeel and Sting's discussion, "What about tag? Everyone in favor of tag, raise your hands!" 

Natsu, Sting, and Wendy raised their hands hopefully, and Gajeel followed a few seconds later, although with some reluctance. That only left Rogue, who was nervously plucking at his hair. 

"Come ooonnn, Rogue, we don't have all day! We're going to start without you if you don't decide now," Natsu threatened impatiently, but retracted his words when he got a panicked whimper as a response. "Relax, I was joking!" he added quickly, "but seriously, though, make up your mind already."

"There's something stuck in my hair," Rogue whined, tucking at the long black strands that fell in front of his face. 

"What is it?" Wendy worried, coming closer to see if she could be of any help. She gasped and clapped her hands over her mouth in horror, "Oh, no!" 

"What? What is it?!" Rogue's panic increased; he couldn't see what caused his hair to stick and tangle together, and automatically assumed the worst. 

"It's…bubblegum!"

"Told you not to get under the tables," Gajeel scolded, settling into the older brother role, like he often did with the younger slayers. He turned his attention to Sting, who had kept suspiciously quiet, and immediately shrunk under the weight of his steely gaze. "Been sneaking candy into class again, punk?" 

"I'm sorry-" Sting hung his head low, knowing he'd been caught, "I didn't want Miss Anna to catch me chewing gum, so I stuck it under the table."

He felt even worse when he noticed Rogue's angry pout, and wanted to fix his mistake. "Hold still, maybe I can get it out." He tried his best to untangle the knot that had formed around the gum. 

"Ow! You're pulling my hair!" 

"Sorry…it's really,  _ really _ stuck in there."

Natsu snapped his fingers, "I have an idea! I can melt it out with my fire!" He summoned a small flame in the palm of his hand, and was in Rogue's face before Rogue could properly register the words. 

"But we aren't allowed to use magic outside of practice!" Wendy squeaked, trying to talk him out of what she could only imagine was a terrible idea, for multiple reasons. 

"Well, this is an emergency," Natsu said, determined to help one friend out of a sticky situation, and save another from the punishment their teacher would give him when they'd ask her for help and had to explain what happened. 

"Salamander!" 

"Wait,  _ NO _ ! Don't-" 

Gajeel’s and Rogue's protests came too late. Natsu had already grabbed the messy lock of hair that had the gum in it, lifting it up and holding his flame under it, and all Rogue could do was squeeze his eyes shut, and pray. 

Of course, the gum didn't just melt out like Natsu had thought, or at least hoped it would. It blackened, thin ribbons of smoke snaking up and spreading the penetrating smell of burnt sugar and hair, as it wasn't just the gum that was affected by the fire. 

"Put it out!" Sting shrieked, quickly patting out the flames before Rogue would suffer more serious damage. 

At this point, Rogue just let it all happen. The fear of opening his eyes and facing the damage kept him frozen in place as he sniffled quietly. Wendy couldn't bear to look either, and hid her face behind her hands as she turned around and rushed back to the small cottage that served as their school building to get help. 

"Why the hell did you think that would work!? You only made it worse!" Gajeel pointed at the dry, burnt ends of Rogue's hair, and the gum that still sat there, blackened in some spots, and stickier than before in others. 

"I was just trying to help him," Natsu glared at Gajeel, but upon noticing the damage caused by his attempt at helping, even he had to admit that using fire hadn't been as good of an idea as he'd thought at the time. "Uhm…oops. So, how do we fix this?" 

"Easy-" Gajeel called upon his magic to transform his hand into an iron knife. "I'll cut out the gum, like you should have let me do in the first place, instead of trying something as stupid as burning it."

Rogue flinched when Gajeel approached him and he noticed how sharp that knife was, reflecting sunlight like a mirror on its cutting edge. Sting grabbed his hand and squeezed it tightly, trying to offer some consolation. "It'll be fine, Gajeel will fix it for you, and I promise, I  _ promise _ that I'll never chew gum again."

"You better," Rogue warned, hoping to sound intimidating but the tremble in his voice threw a spanner in the works, "I'll punch you into next week if you break your promise."

They both held their breaths when Gajeel assumed his position and got ready to make the cut, only releasing them when he sliced through Rogue's hair in one clean move, without as much as putting a scratch on his skin. 

"There. All taken care of." Gajeel dispelled his magic and held the lock of ruined hair in his other hand, proudly dangling it in front of Rogue's face to show him that his troubles were over. 

They weren't. Rogue could tell that much just from looking at his friends' faces. Gajeel’s expression went from smug to horrified, Sting looked like he was about to cry, and Natsu was trying desperately not to laugh. 

"W-What?" Rogue stuttered, slowly lifting his hand to examine the area where the gum had been just a moment ago. There used to be a soft lock of hair, but now all he could feel were some short spikes, and a few leftover burnt ends that crumbled at his touch. 

"Yeah, I hate to break it to you, but…God, you look awful!" Natsu managed to get out between snorts. "Gajeel has got to be the worst hairdresser in the history of hairdressers, ever!" 

"Shut up! At least  _ I  _ got rid of the gum without trying to turn the kid into a living torch!" 

"That wasn't my intention, Metal Bucket!" 

Natsu and Gajeel continued to throw insults back and forth, which quickly but unsurprisingly resulted in a fistfight. Rogue was still touching the abused parts of his hair, silent tears streaming down his face as he tried to convince himself that this wasn't happening. And upon watching the chaos unfold, Sting broke down in loud wails, sobbing that it was all his fault. 

"What in heaven's name is going on over here?" 

Anna came running over, a very distraught looking Wendy following behind her. She took one look at the scene in front of her, and clapped her hands loudly in order to get their attention. "Boys! Would you mind explaining what happened?" 

They all started talking at once, either crying or yelling to surpass the others' voices, and pointing fingers at each other as they presented their version of the story. 

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Settle down, one at a time, please." She turned to Rogue, unable to hide a grimace when she took in the state of his hair, "Go ahead."

"I wanted to play hide and seek, so I crawled underneath the tables, hoping they'd come looking for me, but then I got gum in my hair." Rogue recounted with a wet voice. "He tried to pick it out, he tried to burn it away with his fire, and he cut it off with his knife," he pointed at Sting, Natsu, and Gajeel.

"Did you now?" Anna crossed her arms against her chest, lifting a brow at Natsu and Gajeel. "And what was our most important rule again?" 

"No magic outside of practice," they chorused, in similar monotonously, guilt-ridden voices. 

"That's right, unless there's an emergency. A  _ real _ emergency. So, what about the gum? Because I thought we had a rule about candy in the classroom as well."

Avoiding Anna's gaze, Sting blubbered, "The bubblegum was mine, I hid it under the table because I didn't want to get caught, and I meant to throw it away later but I forgot, and I'm really, really, really, really, really sorry!" 

Anna sighed deeply, shaking her head. "Alright. Well, fortunately no one got injured, but that doesn't mean there won't be consequences for breaking the rules."

"Natsu and Gajeel, instead of today's magic practice, you will be writing down every reason you can think of why you're not allowed to use your magic at school outside of practice," she spoke to the boys sternly. 

"As for you, Sting-" she pointedly ignored Natsu and Gajeel’s loud complaints and attempts to escape punishment through excuses, "I think a fitting punishment for you would be cleaning all the tables. You know, just to make sure there's no more sticky surprises lurking under any of them."

"Yes, Miss Anna." Sting wiped his face, and nodded in understanding. 

Realizing that their efforts were wasted, Natsu and Gajeel gave up, but continued to grumble at each other under their breaths. The soft hiccups coming from Wendy, however, were enough to make them stop. 

"What's wrong, Wendy?" Natsu asked. 

"I tattled on you, I didn't mean for you to get in trouble," she cried into her hands, feeling bad for getting their teacher. 

"It's alright, Squirt," Gajeel reassured her, and gave an uncomfortable nod into Rogue’s direction. "I mean, it's not like we wouldn't have been found out anyway…" He elbowed Natsu, who had snorted again. 

"Ow! Jerk!" 

"You did the right thing, Wendy," Anna added with a smile, before turning to Rogue again. She held her chin between her fingers and sighed, "It's such a shame. I probably would've been able to remove the gum with some cooking oil, but this requires more drastic measures to fix. Either way, what's done is done, and I can't just let you walk around like this, so let's see what we can salvage, shall we?" She took Rogue by one hand and Wendy by the other, herding them all back inside. 

Once she'd set up some simple tasks to keep the other slayers busy, she took Rogue and disappeared into the bathroom. When they returned a few minutes later, Rogue had the hood of his sweater pulled over his head as far as it would go, covering half of his face. Anna offered a sympathetic smile, and mentioned something about wishing she had a certain golden key. 

They went on with their day as usual, with the exception of the punishments Natsu, Gajeel, and Sting had been given. Rogue didn't take his hood or his sweater off once, despite being visibly uncomfortable thanks to the warm weather. 

Soon, class was over, leaving only a last period of relaxation and play before the dragons would return to pick up their kids . Not risking getting into trouble twice today, the dragon slayers had decided to play it safe and spend their time on the playground equipment. 

"You're sweating bullets, just take the damn thing off already," Gajeel badgered Rogue, noticing that the visible part of his face was flushed and shimmering. 

"No," Rogue said stubbornly, "I look stupid. You're just going to laugh at me again."

"We didn't laugh at you, Salamander did, and if he does it again I'll push him off the swing for you."

"Try me, Scrap Heap!" Natsu challenged in retaliation. "Don't worry, Rogue, I swear I won't laugh anymore!"

Rogue huffed, still making no move to reveal himself. He sat down on the edge of the sandbox, drawing random patterns into the soft sand with a twig he'd picked up. 

"Hey," Sting sat next to him, gently nudging him with his shoulder. "Are you still mad at me?" 

"Maybe a little," Rogue shrugged, "it wasn't just your fault, anyway."

"Did Miss Anna cut off the rest of your hair too?" Wendy asked, joining them in the sandbox. 

"Yeah. She said it was the best she could do."

"It's okay, it'll grow back before you know it! Natsu hopped in as well, flashing a big grin," and besides, I bet you'll still look nowhere near as stupid as Gajeel." He had barely finished that sentence when Gajeel appeared behind him and pushed him over, face-down into the sand. 

"He has a point, though, it'll grow back," Gajeel admitted. "So, are you going to take it off, or would you rather suffocate in that sweater and die on a bad hair day?" 

They all waited in silence, anxious to see what Rogue would do. Finally, taking a deep breath, he caved under the heat and all the eyes that were on him, and took off his sweater.

"I look like a kiwi…" he muttered, gauging their reactions one by one. The other slayers stayed quiet, and he wasn't even sure if he wanted them to say something nice or give their brutally honest opinions.

"I dunno, you still look like Rogue to me," Natsu was the first to speak up, simply shaking it off along with the sand. 

"Yeah!" Sting beamed and ruffled his hand through Rogue's buzz cut. "I don't know what you're talking about, kiwis have nothing on you!"

Wendy smiled earnestly, "It's a lot better than earlier!" 

"I don't even care what any of you look like," Gajeel said dryly, giving each of them an unimpressed once-over. 

A small smile appeared on Rogue’s face as he realized that although he hated his unplanned haircut, it hadn't changed the way his friends treated him. There would undoubtedly be laughing and teasing later; that was just the way things went, and it wasn't like he'd run out of payback material anytime soon, anyway. 

"Alright, can we play tag now?" Natsu asked excitedly, jumping up all ready to go. 

"Actually, I think you all owe me a game of hide and seek," Rogue grinned, even wider when the others all groaned and rolled their eyes at him. 

"Where's the fun in that? We can sniff each other out easily!" Natsu complained, unable to see the kind of challenge he liked in the game. 

"So?" 

"Alright, but you're the seeker, so you better start counting!" Sting laughed and ran off in search of a good hiding spot. The others did the same, leaving a surprised Rogue behind in the sandbox to search for them, which wasn't exactly what he'd had in mind. 

It didn't matter, Rogue guessed he should've seen it coming, and content knowing that in spite of everything that happened today, they were still able to play together in the end, he closed his eyes and started counting.

**Author's Note:**

> So I saw that manga panel of young Rogue with that horrendous buzz cut again the other day, and this idea popped up in my head. I regret everything and nothing at the same time.


End file.
